Engineering Chiral Helimagnetism in a Centrosymmetric Compound

Chiral helimagnetism is not uncommon. In most cases, it is borne by an underlying inversion-symmetry-breaking of the lattice, which gives rise to a Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction. In a minority of cases, it comes from a geometric spin frustration. Strontium ferrite (SrFeO₃), however, hosts chiral helimagnetism despite the centrosymmetric lattice and lack of frustration. Through a variety of techniques, we show how such magnetic order, which seems to be decoupled from the chemical order, can be engineered by a thin film environment.